Stranger things have happened...

Guitarist drops Korn to follow Jesus

This news is about 4 days old, but I'm still rolling it around in my head. I was a pretty big fan of Korn when their first album came out, and I really respected this guy's ability to really rock the guitar in a way that sounded unique among everything else in the genre. I stopped listening to them because, well, they weren't really that good, in my opinion, after the first album. More importantly, I didn't care for the way they expressed themselves in the lyrics. It wasn't a major decision in my life, just one of those little things you think about when your read news like this.

Here's what I wanted to get out in this post...this guy's story just goes to prove what Jesus commanded when He came upon a crowd punishing a prostitute...that only those with no sin should pass judgement on others. I'm sure there must have been more than one occasion where Brian ‘Head’ Welch, the guitarist for Korn, heard someone tell him he was going to Hell for some reason or another, but anyone making that claim against him is now officially wrong. How wrong was it to judge the people that Jesus would eventually take on as diciples? All of them had a number of sins, and need salvation the same as any.

Think about it....a lot of high-and-mighty folks are quick to tell people that they are on a path to Hell. As this guitarist's story in particular has shown us, whatever path Brian ‘Head’ Welch was on has now obviously led him to Christ.

God works in mysterious ways, yep. There are millions of people out there hearing nothing but negativity from Christians (and I must admit that I've thrown more than my share of stones, unfortunately). This guy's story makes me think real long and hard about the way I approach people that God may have put me with. What would make me (or anyone) think that God wants us to verbally punish people for their sins? Wouldn't it make more sense just to show them that the life I lead is more enjoyable and my burdens are easier to bear because of the love of my savior, Jesus Christ? The relationship I have with Him is not yet what I want it to be, only because of myself, but every step I make towards Him gives me a feeling I couldn't begin to describe.

Wouldn't it make sense to explain the love of a savior in these terms than to simply tell people that they are evil in the eyes of God and will be burning in Hell for eternity? I just hope that I personally can remember lives like this and the countless others told and untold before I pretend to be the judge of all creation again.

Whew! What a life...

Okay, so we got the house, finally moved in, and have everything more or less organized. We also got our little puppy, Jingles, and brought her to our new home (and her new home). All in all, it's been a hectic past few weeks.

We had planned to move into the house on Saturday January 29th, but there was a huge ice storm we had been watching throughout the week, and it hit hard early evening on that Friday. So we just pushed it off til Sunday the 30th. However, we already had the moving truck (I was able to convince them to give me extra time for the move at no cost because of the weather). Spent most of the day Saturday just checking and rechecking the contents of boxes, looking around for something to do, and watching some TV. I went out every now and then just to see how bad it all really was outside. It was bad.

Worst part of it all was that we had moved a lot of our food and food prep (pots and pans, plates) over to the new place Friday afternoon. We couldn't get out to go buy food and no one was delivering, so we had some weird meals and snacks on Saturday. In retrospect, we probably should have planned the food situation better. We did survive though...

Sunday was a long day. The actual packing of the truck took hardly any time at all, because my brother-in-law Thom brought a couple of his friends, and between the three of them and all the other friends and family, it was a constant train of our belongings going from the apartment to the truck, and from the truck to the house when we got there. To all you folks that helped out with the move, Hilary and I really really appreciate it. Hey, I'll even put your name in the credits (in order of appearance):

Mike
Dad
Ryan
Thom
Dave
Phil
Joe
Holly
Eric
Alison

After the truck was emptied out, we still had a good bit of time left to get the truck back to the rental place. Afterwards, my Dad and Ryan and I went to my boss' house to pick up a bed that she gave us as a sort of housewarming gift. Pretty nice bed, too...looks pretty much brand new.

I'll write more later about the move, and give some more details about Jingles.